Allegory of the Cave Written by Plato - Essay Example

Essay: Psychology Analogy of the cave is another for the Allegory of the cave and is written by Plato a renowned Greek philosopher, in the Republic to make a comparison of the effect of education and the lack of the same on our nature. This work is narrated as a dialogue between Plato’s mentor, Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon. In this work, Plato makes a description of the human situation that was existing in the community at the period of Socrates’ persecution for alleged corruption of the young minds of the youth(Durant.12).Plato was only able to identify a primary characteristic of mankind that is in existence in our community even to this date. The depiction of the cave by Plato is made up of two layers of human community which are applicable even to date-the puppet handlers (establishment) and the prisoners (represents the common guy).The prisoners in this case are uninformed of the truth, since they believe what they are seeing as actuality and therefore are not able to imagine further than their sight. Prisoners see shadows dancing on the wall of the cave and in front of them is their full lives and imagine it is the sole actuality achievable since prisoners have always been “it from the childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed(on the wall)”(Plato Vii 514b).These shadows seen by prisoners are distortions of the truth which are accessible to them by the leaders that make use of them as a “thong of lies and deceptions for the benefit of the ruled”(Plato V 459d). In the same manner, the common man at present is unaware of the truth. This is because he has pushed into narrow-mindedness from babyhood by the establishment (puppet handlers).Enlightenment is therefore something strange to the common man and s/he is not ready to embrace. Key words: narrow-mindedness, common man, enlightenment In the history of human beings, it’s only very few people who have been able to break these chains of being narrow-mindedness and have been able to run away from the cave and by the virtue of reasoning and becoming enlightened by the facts and see the actuality that we exist in. Two millennia after the persecution of Socrates for corrupting young minds of the youth with his reasoning ability, that Copernicus was able to by use of logic to reason and to query the basis of Ptolemy’s replica of the world. For a period of over 1500 years after Ptolemy, it was generally agreed that the earth was motionless and the middle of the world, since it matched with the well-known observation of the church-that our place in the world and the Earth was unique (Ridpath 62). In the A spoonful of Sugar Makes the Temperature go down, (Charles, 2009) there is a notion of how certain types of diseases are able to make a certain population of people survive. This is just similar to Plato’s reasoning and needs to be studied more carefully to ascertain its authenticity. This particular text describes the role of insulin in the processing of sugar in a person’s body, particularly glucose. The author claims that any disease that is heritable ,which is still widespread to date, must have been advantageous to ancestral populations in some way, or else the sufferers of the disease would have been gotten rid from the rest of the population via natural selection. In this case, the author utilizes the illustration of diabetes, particularly Type 1 diabetes to prop up his claim. Particularly, he claims that Type 1 diabetes is so prevalent since it assisted their ancestors from Northern Europe to survive the ice age about 13,000 years ago (Prince Jonathan, 2009).Another notable figure in the ongoing argument is Ernst Walter Mayr. In his book “What Evolution Is”, explains that even though Charles Darwin and others claimed that several species could develop from a common singular ancestor, the means by which this happened was not comprehended, creating the same problem of species. Mayr came up with a new approach by definition of the concept of what species is. Mayr wrote that a species is not only a grouping of morphologically analogous individuals, but a cluster that can interbreed only amongst themselves, with the exception of all others. A time comes when populations that are within a species are isolate by feeding strategy, mate selection, geography or by other means may start to become different from the rest of the populations through natural selection and genetic drift, and over a period of time may develop into a new type of species. Thus the most noteworthy and fast genetic reorganization occurs in populations that are extremely small and that have been in isolation such as those in the islands (Ernst, 2014). In his article Evolution as Fact and Theory, Stephen Jay, and according to idealized standards of scientific conversation, the stimulation of latent issues should mirror fresh data that provide renewed life to abandoned concepts. The individuals outside the present debate may thus be excused for supposing that creationists have discovered with something new, or that evolutionists have produced some stern internal trouble. However nothing has changed and the creationists haven’t discovered a single new argument or fact. This means that the rise of creationism is most oftenly politics, simple and pure and symbolizes a single issue (and by no means the major concern) of the resurgent evangelical right. Sometimes arguments that looked kooky just like ten years ago have reentered the conventional. The primary attack of present day creationists disintegrates on two general tallies before we even reach the supposed truthful details of their attack on evolution. Foremost they dance along a language misunderstanding of the word “theory” so as to express the fake impression that the evolutionists are busy doing cover ups of similar philosophy makes a demonstration that their own conviction is not science, and the fact that scientific creationism is a worthless and self-contradictory expression (Wells George Herbert, 1934). Plato has a depiction of the human soul as a spirit or ghost or unseen something different from the body within which the soul lives. Plato in this case talks about the soul as if it were an object’s name. (In the thinking of Plato” all words are names and the meaning of a name is the thing the name stands for”, however this is not the reason for Plato to his having the depiction of the soul as a spirit. However, and this is solution to understanding this particular dialog, that Plato doesn’t begin with that depiction and then try arguing that the soul is everlasting on the base of it. In fact we cannot start with the picture of the soul as a ghost and then confirm anything by way of it, it is a dead end. However Plato does not begin here. He starts by reckoning that there must be such a spirit (an entity different from the body) for the reason that we must have learnt things prior to being born into the body-that is to say, because learning is remembrance(namely the remembrance of what are known as “absolutes” in this particular dialog. The moment Plato institutes that there is such as a spirit, he goes back to ask, what must be the character of that ghost? Augustine called his extremely theological and philosophical autobiography Confessions to involve two features of the structure the work would assume. Confessing during the time of Augustine, meant both to give an account of a person’s faults to God and at the same time praise God(speaking one’s love for God).It is very clear therefore that these two objectives coalesce in the Confessions in a graceful but complicated sense: Augustine makes a narrative of his ascent from the nature of sinfulness to faithfulness, not just simply for the practical instruction of readers ,since he also is a firm believer that the narrative to be itself a tale of God’s greatness and of the basic love all things have for Him. In the Confessions, therefore, form is tantamount to a single degree,-the natural manner of Augustine’s own tale of redemption to take would be an express address to God, since it is only Jehovah who must be thanked for such wonderful redemption (Augustine, (original 1921),2008). (A direct address to God was a highly original form for Augustine to have considered at that particular time).Thus the black man is always in constant struggle with his own conscious and is looking for ways to appease his troubled soul. In Black Theology ,we learn that from 1517-1840,it has been estimated that around 20 million lack people were captured in Africa and sold in America, becoming brutally enslaved. Thus the experience of these earlier enslaved blacks and their descendants forthwith serves as a very good example and backdrop of trying to understand the modern-day black emancipation theology (Gary, 2009). Just like the prisoner in the cave, many whites were disgusted at the suggestion that blacks too would go to heaven. Initially there was heated resistance to evangelizing amongst slaves. There were 3 most important reasons for not allowing this; the preaching of the gospel needed time and which could be economically useful, secondly, the gathering together of slaves could lead to them being conscious of the strength that they possessed and thus plot rebellion under the guise of religious instruction. And finally there was a long standing English tradition that the moment a slave got converted into Christianity s/he would no longer be taken as a slave. The resistance was so intense that the slave masters could not believe that slaves could be converted into Christians too and thus become like them. Thus Morgan Godwyn, a graduate of Oxford University who served in the churches in Virginia around the year 1665, records how the slave masters would yell, “What, such as they? What, those black dogs be made Christians? What, shall they be like us?”(5).There were whites that argued that black slaves were less more human For instance Buckener H.Payne,in, in his book The Negro: What IS His Ethnological blacks are present with us today; they must have been in the ark. There were only eight souls saved in the ark, however, and they are fully accounted for by Noah’s family. As one of the beasts in the ark, the black has no soul to be saved.”(6).So whats the reason of trying to evangelize them? Thus these views are similar to those of the prisoner in the cave who sees shadows on the cave wall. Similarly in The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.D DuBois brings together 14 of his essays on the politics, sociology and history. The Souls of Black Folk starts with a “Forethought” in which DuBois addresses the reader, introducing the essays that make up the text and outline its main arguments. Dubois explains to the reader that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of color line.”A statement that is constantly repeated throughout the text. The main theme of this text is the issue of the “color line” or rather the division of African Americans from the other part of American society (mostly, ‘white’ society), is the major theme of this text. Thus DuBois starts the first Chapter by a discussion of what it really means to be a “problem”. He claims that people never come right out and ask him what it really feels like and what it actually is being a problem, even though he knows that they think about him as a problem since he is an African American. People instead tell him about nice African Americans they are aware of or tell him about the participation in the Civil War so as to abolish slavery. DuBois is usually polite when people tell him things like this. Due to this introduction, DuBois remembers an episode from his childhood in New England. At one time, DuBois and his schoolmates were giving cards to one another .DuBois was really shocked when a new girl from another school rejected his card. DuBois then realized from an early age that he was different from other kids (presumably white).It was then that DuBois decided he existed within a veil and held disdain for those who existed outside of it. Later on in life, Dubois’s disdain washed out and he made a decision that he would execute something significant with his own life. DuBois makes out a categorization of the races (Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Teuton, Mongolian, Roman, and Negro) and claims that the “Negro” is as seventh son with the endowment of second-sight. DuBois refers to this second sight as “Double Consciousness,” claiming that African Americans are constantly seeing themselves through the eyes of others. Dubois therefore argues that the Negro is in constant struggle of merging his different selves .In his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity, American psychologist Skinner, argues that deep-rooted belief in freedom and moral independence of the individual (Skinner called it dignity) prevents the prospect of utilizing scientific methods to make a modification of behavior for the sole reason of building a better organized and happier society. This book may be summarized as an endeavor to endorse Skinner’s philosophy of science, his concept of determinism, technology of human behavior and what is referred to as “cultural engineering.”For instance in the chapter pertaining technology, Skinner claims that a technology behavior is likely and that it can be utilised in helping in looking for solutions presently pressing human challenges such as warfare and over-population.”Almost all major problems involve human behavior, and they cannot be solved by physical and biological technology of human behavior.”On the issue of freedom, Skinner argues that for a more accurate definition of freedom, the one that permits for his conception of determinism (action which is free from specific types of control) and goes against the conventional idea of freedom. Thus Skinner is against “autonomous man.” Inspite of all this, Skinner is keen to note that the two forces of dignity and freedom have caused a lot of several constructive advances in the human conditions (Burrhus, (original 1971) 2002). However they are now preventing the development of a technology of human behavior.”(The literature of freedom and dignity) has been quite successful in the reduction of aversive stimuli that are used in deliberate control, but it has erred by defining freedom in terms of feelings or state of minds…” Erikson came up with the theory of personality. It suggested that every person must study how to both limits of each particular life-stage challenge in tension with each other, not refusing one end of the tension to or another one. Only when both limits in a life-stage confront are comprehended and established in order for a practical “hope” to be emerge as a possible solution at the initial stage. Likewise despair and integrity must both be comprehended and embraced so as an actionable ‘knowledge’ to come out as workable solution at the final stage. Erikson came up with eight stages in which basic-stage virtue may be acquired. The first was Basic trust versus Basic mistrust, Autonomy versus Shame, Purpose –initiative versus Guilt, Competence-industry versus Inferiority-School-age/6-11 years, Fidelity-identity versus Role confusion-Adolescent/12-18 years, Intimacy versus Isolation, Generativity versus stagnation, and lastly Ego Integrity versus despair. Thus on ego personality versus role confusion, it means that ego personality enables every individual to have a sense of individualism or to put it Erikson way, “Ego identity, then ,in its subjective aspect, is the awareness of the fact that there is a self-sameness and continuity to the ego’s synthesizing methods and a continuity of one’s meaning for others.”(1963).Role confusion on the other hand is according to Barbra Engler in her book Personality Theories (2006),”the inability to conceive of oneself as a productive member of one’s own society” (158).This therefore means that the powerlessness to visualize of oneself as a productive member is a great hazard; it can actually occur during the adolescence period, while looking for an occupation. The other important reading that relates to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. This is a book on women development and broadly gender studies. In this book, Kohlberg’s stages of moral development of children are criticized by Gilligan. Kohlberg’s argument was that girls on average arrived at a lower stage of moral maturity than boys of the same age did. Gilligan discovered that the characters in Kohlberg’s basic study were mostly males. She also noted that the method of scoring that Kohlberg utilised tended in a way to support a standardized way of way of thinking (one more widespread to boys).Gilligan puts both men and women into account, this being even if most of the understanding in her work makes a suggestion of typical acts of females. She thus puts into consideration that females are also able to reason in ways of justice and hat males can reason in ways of caring. Therefore according to this particular theory, women who are supposedly caring are liked with being connected and men, who are generally considered to be justice oriented, are linked with being impersonal. When Gilligan asked women “How would you describe yourself?”She realized that women usually described who they are by describing relationships. On the other hand, men made a description of themselves by separation or by use of “I” statements .This led to Gilligan to make comparisons of this study to the childhood fairytales. While growing up, men fantasize on killing dragons whereas women on the other hand would fantasize on having relationships. Gilligan also discovered that men have got many tendencies of thinking in more violent terms as compared to women. Thus, “Justice is the ultimate moral maturity for adolescents (usually males) who view themselves as being autonomous. Thus care is the eventual responsibility of adolescents (usually females) who view themselves as linked to others (Carol, (original 1982)2012).”My life experience. My first trip ever to Africa to me seemed like a nightmare. My parents had been given an assignment into this part of the world and I was to accompany them. I was to start taking my studies there and I could not believe that I was going to a foreign country, more so in Africa which is deemed as the most underdeveloped place on earth. I had not read much about this continent and the only stories I heard were those of poverty. That the first thing that strikes you the moment you land (I thought there were no good enough airports, so in my mind we were to take a cruise ship).My friends who had watched movies and documentaries from Africa informed me that poverty was rampant and that beggars were lined up everywhere on the streets, market places and even alongside main shopping areas like supermarkets etc. That the beggars look up to you as a semi-god who can fulfill their every wish. It is a good idea to carry some change with you so as to avoid you harboring feelings of guilt when they spread their hands to beg. If you are lacking in small change, a kind smile, sorry or a greeting will perfectly do. Those who cannot handle the guilt should go to a hospital or a development agency and make a contribution. The streets are also littered with children of all ages and sizes who at the end of the day will have to give up the begged money to parents and/or their elder siblings or guardians. Sometimes if the children are orphans, a gang leader will take all the money. I was advised the best way to assist these kids is to give them donations of food that will help them directly since they can feed on their own. I was also warned of unwanted and unwarranted attention from people staring at you. This is a rampant activity in many African countries even in places where there are lots of tourists. These stares are usually harmless and no injury can be inflicted and they are just out of curiosity. Since there isn’t much entertainment available, staring at a tourist is usually fun and they do it with lots of gusto. However after a while you get used to it and you also begin staring at them. Some foreign tourists would like to wear sunglasses and thus feel more comfortable and contented that way. Others enjoy the new look rock star status and definitely miss it big when they land back home. Women get many stares from men (usually in groups) and this could be naturally threatening. However this is something that you can expect when you travel to African countries especially those in Northern Africa (Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia).I was advised not to let that bother me and that the best ways to deal with it was ignoring and avoid getting annoyed by the whole spectacle. The other major warning that I received was concerning scams, conmen and touts. Thus being a visitor and obviously wealthier than most of the locals around you, naturally you become an easy target for scams, conmen and touts (people who try to sell a good or service that you are not interested in a deceitful manner).Always bear in mind that these people are poor and therefore try to earn their living. That they would rather be guides but are not able to afford that kind of education. I was told the best way to avoid such was by saying a very firm “no, thank you!” and get away from them as soon as possible, if they seem to be persistent. My friend advised me on several types of scams and how to deal with them. That I should not assume that there is something for free. Whereas there are friendly and hospitable people everywhere in Africa, I should be careful and while in a touristy area and am offered something for free. It’s rarely free and a “free camel ride” for instance will most definitely become a very expensive one, when you wish to go back to where you came from. Thus a “free guided tour” around a renowned tourist site will more than often lead to an uncle’s curio shop or a demand for tips at the end of the tour. A “free cup of tea” will include looking at a lot of jewelry shops and carpets. When you hear of the word “free”, the price paid is often beyond your control. The other thing I was supposed to be wary of was issue of hotels just disappearing, filling up or moving to a bad situation. Hotels just don’t do that. This tip is very significant for independent travelers .The moment you arrive at an African airport, train or bus station; you are most definitely greeted warmly by several people, asking rather loudly where your destination is. Several of these folks will earn their commission from you if they happen to take you to their hotel of their own choosing. This does not mean that the hotel will be necessarily bad; it only means that you may end up paying more or staying in a place where you do not like or worse still the hotel could be indeed quite bad. These folks may ask you which hotel you are booked in and then they will emphatically inform you that that particular hotel is full, has moved or is in a terrible place. Do not buy any of these stories and it’s always advisable to make reservations of the hotel you will be staying in before you arrive in the evening while visiting a major tourist town. The other thing to avoid is exchanging money on the streets. Immediately you arrive in an African country, you will meet people from all walks of life who will really encourage you to do some money exchange on the street. That they will offer you better exchange rates than what the banks are giving. This is a big temptation and you should avoid it as much as you can. This is an illegal way of money changing and its not a very intelligent idea to show someone your foreign currency. The risk of exchanging your money on the street is not worth the hassle of potential robbery or cheating. The other area where I was warned on was on health and safety. This is especially a big concern for all those travelling to Africa. That the medical facilities are in poor conditions and most doctors there are quacks who are going to try your body on anything as happens to guinea pigs. That Africa has got the worst healthcare system in the world and I should be prepared to be airlifted back to my country oftenly or any moment I fell sick for that matter. These stories really, made me nervous, scared and wanted even to cancel the whole trip to Africa, stay with my grannies back at home, save for that occasional trip to go and say hi to my parents. I thought of the kind of education I was going to receive there. The thought of a black African teacher with a heavy mother tongue accent and no clue whatsoever of what h\s/he was offering scared me. The days were fast approaching and finally the D-day arrived. By now it had been confirmed that my father was headed to Nairobi, Kenya. We arrived at the departure airport and off we were soon airborne headed to our new destination. It wasn’t until several hours later that I was awakened by my mum telling me to get ready for landing. As I peeped through my airplane window, I just could not believe what I saw. There were skyscrapers everywhere and what looked like a very modern commuter transport system. I had to confirm from my parents if this was indeed Nairobi. They told me yes and that this was the city where we will be residing. As we alighted from the airplane we were received with song and dance at the airport which just looked well like the one we had left back at home. There were no touts or beggars in the vicinity. I could see there were several trucks and sophisticated ground moving machines working on the other side of the airport, clearly indicating, expansion was in progress. The road to our hotel was really fine, no potholes anywhere, traffic lights were working, policemen were on standby with full gear and everything seemed perfectly normal. I said to myself that it was too early to judge. We arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi in less than ten minutes and we received by very friendly and hospitable hotel staff. They made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed for our relaxation. Later on the next day we were taken to our place of residence which was to be in the Westland area of Nairobi, a leafy suburb with all the necessary modern amenities such as well tarmacked roads, high speed internet connectivity, well secured and friendly people. I was enrolled to my school, which to my amazement, was just like the one I left back at New York. The teachers were friendly, courteous, knowledgeable and above all caring. I soon made a few friends and with time I felt as I as at home again. Kenya is such a beautiful country and has got a great people living here. There so many expatriates working here in Nairobi and is the headquarters for UNEP which is an arm of the UN.I am yet to encounter hostilities or extreme behaviors such as stares from people, beggars baying for my money and so forth and so on. On the contrary, the weather here is amazing, there is political stability and the economy is just awakening, ready for take off.I am yet to go on a safari on one of the world famous game reserves. My father has promised me this coming August holidays. After reflecting on all that I had heard, I could not help but see my friends and myself as prisoners in our own world. Just like the prisoner in Plato’s Allegory of the cave, we too were unable to know what lies beyond our borders and this truly has limited our view of the world beyond ours. I have written to my friends and taken a few photos just to convince them that I m not in a cave somewhere in Africa. References http://worldhumanitiesfths.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/platos-allegory-of-the-cave-does-this-allegory-have-relevance-in-our-world-today/ Augustine, S. ((original 1921),2008). The Confessions of St.Augustine. New York: The Floating Press. Burrhus, S. F. ((original 1971) 2002). Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Hackett Publishing Company Inc. Carol, G. ((original 1982)2012). In a Different Voice. New York: Harvard University Press. Charles, R. A. (2009). The story of an Mser and MSBs Podcast. New York: Google books. Ernst, M. (2014). What Evolution Is:From Theory to Fact. New York: Orion. Gary, D. (2009). Social Ethics in the Making:Interpreting an American Tradition. New York: Blackwell Publishing. Prince Jonathan, M. S. (2009). Survival of the Sickest. New York: HarperColins. Wells George Herbert, H. J. (1934). Evolution-Fact and Theory. New York: Cassell. Read More